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Forgeries seized at French match

HUNDREDS of forged tickets for yesterday’s Six Nations rugby match between Ireland and France were seized by authorities at the gates to Lansdowne Road. Gardai arrested several people suspected of selling the counterfeit tickets near the grounds.

The national team may have lost on the pitch but the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) believes it is winning the fight against counterfeit tickets on the streets.

The IRFU said that about 300 counterfeit tickets had been seized at the gates for the Ireland-England match last month, proving that its ticket-security measures were working and that forgers had been beaten. “The Ireland-England match is always the key target for fake tickets,” the IRFU said. “It’s the old grudge match and demand for tickets is at its highest.”

But similar numbers were seized at the Ireland-France game yesterday.

An IRFU steward at Lansdowne Road said: “It was the same again, in the hundreds.